July 7

1.Blast rips through 5 vehicles in Peshawar: The News on July 7
PESHAWAR: A powerful explosion has occurred near Farqeerabad locality in Peshawar, ripping through five vehicles in a car showroom on Wednesday morning, Geo news reported.
The blast also left as many as 20 more cars partially damaged, police sources said.
Meanwhile, police claimed arresting a suspected person near blast scene who has been rushed to an unidentified location for investigation.
Police sources said unknown miscreants planted explosives near a car showroom, which went off with a loud voice, destroying five cars completely and leaving 20 others slightly damaged.
Pakistan army soldiers have arrived on the blast site and have taken security under their administration, witnesses told media.
Nearly 1.5-kilogram explosives were used to carry out explosion, claimed bomb disposal squad.

2.Targeted killings claim two more lives in Karachi
By Imran Ayub in Dawn, July 7
KARACHI: Two more people, including the worker of a party in the coalition government, were shot dead on Tuesday, taking the death toll in the ongoing sectarian and political attacks to seven in the first six days of the month.
Despite the special powers given to the paramilitary force of Rangers and vows by police authorities to bear down on criminals — particularly after the killing of two policemen — a lasting peace still remains a distant dream for many Karachiites.
The fresh incidents sparked intermittent firing in different areas — mainly in western part of the city, forcing shopkeepers to pull down shutters and transport to stay off the roads in Nazimabad, North Nazimabad and Orangi Town.
Fayyaz Hussain Rizvi, 24, was gunned down minutes after he left his residence in Orangi Town Sector 11½ on his motorcycle to join his duty at an auto-manufacturing unit on Tuesday morning. Two armed men riding a motorbike intercepted him near the Habib Bank Quarters and shot at him before fleeing. He was hit by a single bullet in the head from a very close range.
“The victim was not associated with any political or religious group,” said SHO of the Iqbal Market police station Liaquat Ali. “He was unmarried and a resident of Shah Waliullah Nagar. Nothing can be said with complete certainty about the motive behind the murder, but ground realities suggest that the killing was carried out on sectarian grounds.”
The victim’s body was taken to the Imambargah Shah-i-Karbala in Rizvia Society, Nazimabad, where leaders of the Jafria Alliance Pakistan strongly condemned Fayyaz’s murder and criticised the government over its “failure to stop sectarian killings”.
In the early hours of Tuesday, an area leader of the Awami National Party (ANP) was killed inside his home.
Though the area police see the murder of 36-year-old Javed Bangash as a result of personal enmity over a property or family dispute, the ANP condemned the killing of its worker and described it as part of the ongoing spate of targeted killings.
During the first six days of July, the ongoing series of targeted killings has claimed seven lives, including those of Inspector Nasir-ul-Hasan — who was known for the active role he played in the ‘Karachi Operation’ of the 1990s — and his armed guard.